Chapter 48
New Republic listening post, Saarn System
Being the two last people that were left standing in a completely destroyed command centre, Captain Parker knew that there was only one thing left to do. With the Imperial Forces probably moving in to kill or capture any remaining survivors, he needed to start the self-destruction of the base.
"I really don't sound all to pessimistic right now, but I wanted you to know that it was an honor to work alongside you for all these years Sir," Captain Parker's second-in-command Pete Richardson said with a serious look on his face.
Of course Parker knew that things didn't look good for them at all. Before he prepared everything to initiate the self destruct, he said, "I will make sure that we and this base don't end up in the hands of Thrawn's people, even if it's the last thing that I do, Commander."
His second-in-command couldn't help but admire the courage his superior officer still had, even if their situation was that hopeless and it seemed like they wouldn't make it out in one piece. But he quickly put those to rest for now, as there were more important things to think about at this moment.
Meanwhile the first Stormtroopers had landed on the surface of the planet, determined to either kill or capture any survivor of the attack on the New Republic listening post.
Coruscant
Back in the apartment that was shared by Leia and Han, time had practically flown by them, as they spent most of the time with talking.
Han did have a hard time to wrap his head around the whole story from the beginning. But I guess that shows once again how powerful this almighty Force is, Han thought as he looked down to the vast skyline of the city-like planet; and of course he was glad for Leia, as nobody would ever expect to be reunited with their mother after they had thought that she had been dead for almost thirty years.
Padmé couldn't help but let her thoughts drift away again for a moment, being somewhat unsure how she was going to fit in this world that was all new to her. It was kind of sad that she didn't have the opportunity to thank the two families for treating Leia and Luke like they were their own children, but she was confident that a bright future was ahead of her.
Of course the New Republic was still at war with a strong enemy, but the former Senator knew that this young democracy would master this challenge, one way or another, and she was determined to help in the best way that she could.
Meanwhile, Mon Mothma did her best to concentrate on some intelligence reports but failed, as she couldn't stop thinking about that unexpected reunion with her long-time colleague and best friend Padmé Amidala, a person whose death had incredibly grieved her. She had stood at her grave on Naboo, and not in a million years would she have imagined to see her alive again.
Her thoughts about Padmé were suddenly interrupted as one of her aides stormed into the room. Judging from the serious expression on her face, she had to report some very bad news, and so Mon Mothma asked, "What urgent thing do you have to report?"
"We have just received a distress signal from our listening post in the Saarn system, and it doesn't look very well." The aide had to take a short break, as she was still rather shocked from the news; not because she couldn't deal with this kind of stress that sometimes came along with this position, but it certainly had been a shock because nobody had seen it coming. Especially with this one base in particular.
"The base has been attacked by the forces of Grand Admiral Thrawn, and even if we can't be sure right now, we have to assume that there were no survivors."
Mon Mothma had to take a couple of minutes to digest this, and even if she tried her best to wrap her head around the destruction of the listening post, she kept asking herself, How could this happen? There is no way that Thrawn would have found out about this base in the Saarn System on his own! Do we maybe have a traitor in our lines that secretly works for Admiral Thrawn? As much as she hated the whole idea of this theory being true in the end, she had to take it into consideration. For security reasons there was only a small group of people that actually knew about this base, because of how important it was to be able to monitor the movements of Thrawn's forces in the neighbouring systems.
The war hadn't been going very well for the New Republic so far. Of course they had been able to deliver at least some lethal blows to their enemy, but it seemed as if that motivated Thrawn every time to strike back at them with even more strength.
As Mon Mothma was able to recollect her thoughts, she said, "Do we have any ships nearby for a search-and-rescue operation?"
The aide quickly took out a datapad, touched a few buttons and replied, "The Ships of Captain Te'rell and Captain Stevenson are on patrol near the Saarn system."
Of course she drew those ships out of their important duty only reluctantly, but eventually she said, "Send those two the message that they need to get to the Saarn system as quickly as possible and make sure that two other ships fill the empty places."
Knowing that time was a very important factor in this case, the brown-haired woman only nodded and then quickly left Mon Mothma's office. As the door closed behind the young woman, Mon Mothma was now alone again in the room, and she knew exactly who she needed to call right now.
"Admiral, you need to come to my office immediately. There's a situation developing right now that I urgently need to discuss with you in person, because it jeopardizes the security of the New Republic in a major way."
AN: Thanks to: david. davies.5851 for reviewing this story; lemon lover 95 for adding this story to her/his story alert subscription; Gray Cat 17 for adding this story to her/his favourite stories list. Will the Ships of the New Republic military find any survivors? And who is the traitor that sold information to Admiral Thrawn? Please review.
